


white

by chibistarlyte



Series: TWEWYtober 2018 [2]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Dreams, Gen, Post-Canon, TWEWYTOBER 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 18:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16498169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibistarlyte/pseuds/chibistarlyte
Summary: A white figure keeps haunting Neku's dreams.





	white

**Author's Note:**

> Written for TWEWYtober day 2: dreams.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Neku, this is beautiful!”

“Man, I wish I had talent like you. This is bomb, yo!”

“Another amazing addition to your portfolio.”

“Thanks, guys…”

Neku rubbed the back of his neck as his friends fawned over his latest painting. It was the sixth in a series of artworks he’d been working on recently, inspired by some bizarre dreams that plagued him at night for the past few weeks. Neku dreamed of a bright, pure white light—at first he thought he was dead again, even though it was entirely unlike when he had actually died before. Then, the blob of white began to shift the more he dreamt of it, slowly taking a shape that was much more human-like—an angel, maybe? He didn’t know for sure, but whatever was haunting him during his sleep, it felt strangely familiar somehow…

Over the next few hours of chilling out in his room, Neku had barely paid attention to anything his friends were saying or doing. He even missed the moment when Beat flailed a little too vigorously and fell backwards off the bed. It was if he wasn’t even in the room at all, his mind completely elsewhere. White clouded his vision—he could see nothing beyond it at all, just that tall, lanky, majestic figure whose identity still remained a mystery.

“Neku? You okay?”

Shiki’s voice brought the orange-haired boy crashing back to Earth. His blue eyes blinked rapidly before Neku pressed the heel of his hand to his eyelid, rubbing a bit and causing his eyeball to squeak. “Yeah,” he said in a slightly strained voice, “just tired.”

“Maybe we should go,” Rhyme suggested, glancing at the alarm clock on Neku’s nightstand that read 22:03 in blue numbers. “It is rather late…”

“Shit, we gotta split! Mom and Dad’ll be so pissed that I kept you out this late, Rhyme!” Beat cried out, almost falling off the bed as he did earlier in the evening. Perhaps in the future, he’d just sit on the floor and save himself the trouble. “Later, guys!”

The Bito siblings left in a rush, leaving Shiki to pack up her things while Neku sat on his bed in a daze. The brunette secured her needles safely in the plastic pouch of her sewing kit before placing it in her handmade messenger bag. She gazed upon her friend from her spot on the floor, worry written all over her face. Neku didn’t seem tired to her at all. He looked as though he were…distracted. Distant, even.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Neku?” the seamstress asked. “If you need someone to talk to, you know you can tell me anything.”

Neku let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and scratched at the back of his head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Shiki,” he said after a pregnant pause. “These dreams have been so weird lately…I can’t stop thinking about them.”

Abandoning her belongings for now and grabbing Mr. Mew, Shiki sat next to Neku on the bed. “Tell me about them,” she said, staring at her friend with a soft, expectant look.

Neku flopped back on his bed, causing the mattress to bounce a bit at the force. His spiky hair billowed around his head like a porcupine’s needles. “I don’t even know where to start. There’s really not much to them, just. There’s a person. Or at least, I _think_ it’s a person. I don’t really know.” He dug the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. “In the beginning, I always see a white light, and this...person slowly starts to materialize out of the light. But I wake up before I can really tell who, or what, it is.”

Shiki looked thoughtful as she listened to Neku explain his dreams, and at the end of it, she was still quiet for a few moments. “Do you think…” Her voice trailed off. Cracking one eye open, Neku watched his friend gather her thoughts. “...Do you think they’re...I don’t know, memories of some kind? From...you know.”

“The Reaper’s Game,” Neku finished for her. He’d never entertained the thought, really. Despite all the screwing with his head during those three weeks, he had a lot of pretty distinct memories from his time spent in Shibuya’s Underground. Yet for all the things he’d seen in those three weeks being trapped in limbo between life and death, he couldn’t remember ever seeing something like what appeared in his dreams night after night. “I mean...it’s a possibility? With how my memory got screwed around so much, there could be...well. Gaps, I guess.”

Shiki nodded solemnly, clutching Mr. Mew to her chest. “Maybe...if they continue to progress like you said they have...maybe you’ll get your answer. It’ll just take time.”

“Maybe,” Neku breathes out, finally deigning to open his navy eyes and look at his best friend. “Thanks, Shiki. For letting me talk about this.”

A soft, sweet smile turned Shiki’s mouth upwards. “Of course, Neku. I’m here for you.”

And that was where the conversation ended, for now. Neku helped Shiki pack up the rest of her things before bidding her goodnight soon after, hoping she’d make it in time to catch her train. Once alone again, he plopped back down on his bed and sprawled out, staring listlessly at the ceiling.

“A forgotten memory, huh?” he asked the empty air, raising his arm in front of him and stretching his hand up as if trying to grasp some intangible thing just barely out of his reach. Neku let his arm fall back to the bed, then bent it behind his head with his other arm. He fell asleep like that minutes later.

The white figure appeared again, just like it had all the previous nights in weeks past. This time, there seemed to be a more solid mass in the middle of all the misty, glowing tendrils. A discernible shape that looked even more human-like than before.

Shielding his eyes from the brightness before it could burn his retinas, Neku stepped forward. “Who are you?” he asked the figure, half expecting to wake up before he got his answer. The figure turned its head, and Neku caught a glimpse of lavender and a familiar steely smirk…

Neku bolted upright in his bed with a gasp, bunching over and breathing heavily. He felt sweat beading at his hairline, slowly trickling down the side of his face. He knew the identity of the figure in white. There was no mistaking it.

It was _him_.

“Joshua,” Neku whispered to the still, quiet night.


End file.
